Social media impacts courts

The Ohio Supreme Court justice says the growth of social media networks and the popularity of smartphones may force the court to update rules for courtroom broadcasting, according to the Dayton Daily News.

Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger says current rules covering video and radio broadcasting of court proceedings were set up when no one imagined today's available technology. Any changes would have to balance First Amendment rights with a judge's goal of ensuring a fair trial.

The Supreme Court examined the impact on courts of Twitter, Facebook, and smartphones. Erie County Common Pleas Court earlier this month banned cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices to prevent jurors or others from posting inappropriate information during trials.

Arbitron says the Supreme Court of the State of New York issued a temporary restraining order requiring Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) to resume encoding its broadcasting signals for Arbitron's portable people meter (PPM) ratings service, reports Media Week.

Spanish Broadcasting System is one of the more vocal critics of the PPM service, stopped the encoders from its nine US stations. Had Arbitron not received the order, SBS' action could have crippled the PPM in five of the nation's largest Hispanic markets including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco.

"SBS remains under contract with Arbitron for both the PPM service and the encoding of its signal," says Timothy Smith, chief legal officer for Arbitron. "We expect SBS to honour the terms of both agreements."

Nexstar Broadcasting says it has an agreement that will brings news, video, and content from its 33 local community Web portals to mobile users through LSN Mobile's Local Wireless media-to-mobile platform, states Broadcast Engineering.

The community Web portal strategy, released in 2007, extends the reach of its 63 local television stations by leveraging the brand, content and local relationships into an independent business.

The mobile expansion puts content on Web-enabled mobile handsets and delivers video clips to video-enabled mobile phones, either within a news story or through a video menu.